Dead Boys and the Heart Problems They Cause

 

    Dead boys are such wonderful things, and I don't mean that in a serial killer or necrophilia kind of way. Dead boys, meaning the boys inside books that readers cannot help but fall in love with (whether they be ghosts, vampires, or mortals) are the safest form of romance that exists. Rue Volley sums it up nicely in her book, The Dead Boy's Club when Harper (the main character) says that she prefers dead boys because they are controllable. 

    A book is inanimate, even though it possesses the power to control our emotions. It is a way to experience life without the heartache that comes with it. Dead boys are easy to love. The whole point of literature is to form a strong emotional bond between reader and character. It's easy to fall in love with someone you know doesn't come with risk or the tangles of reality. Someone who ceases to exist the moment you close the book. Those boys aren't wandering around asking for attention, they are waiting patiently in their cover for you. That being said, dead boys do bring about other problems. Especially for those of us who are anxious beings.

    I recently finished reading Rue Volley's The Dead Boys Club and I did not include this in my review on Goodreads because I do not think it has an impact on my rating. However, it is something I'd like to share. I've talked with several friends about how their anxiety affects them. We've been comparing our triggers, patterns, and habits. One thing that I found interesting is that most of us prefer watching movies we've already seen and books that we know how they're going to end. The reason being, if you forget to take a pill and you get to a part of a story full of anticipation, it is really easy for anticipation to evolve into anxiety. 

    I had that problem last night. I started reading The Dead Boy's Club around 3:00 in the afternoon. I wasn't paying attention to the clock, read straight through my med time, then at about ten o'clock I had to shut the book because my heart was beating so fast that it hurt. I had to take an hour before I could return to Killian and Harper's world. Before I could find out the truth of what I was anxiously anticipating. 

    Putting down a book is not something book worms like to do, but sometimes it is needed. Those dead boys will still be there waiting for us when we get our hearts back under control and stop feeling like we might die at any moment. Panic attacks are not fun, but you can't let them have power over you. Okay? Here's the deal, anxiety is a real problem, but it's like the cigarette that Augustus Waters puts in his mouth (unlit) in The Fault of Our Stars. It's a poison that doesn't have to kill us. It's a poison that we can have some control over. And even though it's the poison that has helped create my love of reading, it sometimes tries to keep me from my books. 

    You can't let anxiety control your actions. If you do, you'll never get to experience anything. Real or fiction. 

    I related to Harper in Volley's book more than I'd like to admit. Harper doesn't like dating. I don't like dating. She doesn't like dating because dating brings about change. Dating means less time with her family, less time with her friends, less time writing, less time reading...it means rearranging her entire life for a person who may or may not stick around because they have the free will to leave whenever they please and it's so hard to tell if someone actually means what they say or not. So, Harper doesn't date. Instead, she reads. She sits in a cemetery, among the dead, reading while everyone else goes on to find boyfriends and makes plans for marriage, houses, and kids. I can relate to that. And yeah, I know that sounds a little selfish, but it's not. Not really. It's just a different human experience. One that I'm accepting as being my own. 

    Though it is not said in the book that Harper has anxiety, I think she might. Those of us with anxiety do not react well to change. We like schedules. We want plans. We need to know what's going to happen and when, otherwise we cannot commit to anything because we don't know if we're going to be in one of our moods where we want to stay inside all day alone because ew, people. It's a strange existence, but it's not abnormal.

    Now, if you haven't read  Volley's The Dead Boy's Club, yet, I would. Just make sure you set a timer to take your pills if you're on any. I debated long and hard on what rating to give this book when I reviewed it on Goodreads (because for some reason Amazon no longer lets me review). A 4 or a 5? I went with a 5. Volley's The Dead Boy's Club is unlike any paranormal book I've read. It has a twist that many readers won't be suspecting. Halfway through the book, I developed three theories about where the book was going and that's when I almost experienced a panic attack. I will say that even after finishing the book I am a little confused about which of those theories were correct. Some answers to questions simply weren't given. However, the ending to them all was the same and the ending to the book was perfect. 

    Volley took a risk with this book. She gave readers a plot twist that not many paranormal writers experiment with. This is sad because it's one of my favorite twists out there. This book felt like sitting under an orange-leafed tree with a grey sky above. It felt like a pumpkin patch and that moment when you're in the middle of a corn maze, where you know you'll find your way out but aren't sure how. 

    Harper says in the book that Juniper Hollow is Halloween. That the town embraces its paranormal side and is proud of the hauntings that take place there. Well, I think this book, itself, is the embodiment of Halloween. It's perfect. It's the paranormal story I wish I had read as a teen. It made me remember what it was like sitting outside on a crisp autumn day, reading through books about vampires, ghosts, and witches, and falling in love with all the dead boys inside them. If I had a daughter, I would be recommending this book to her in a moment. If I had a son, I would do the same thing, because even though it's written from the eyes of a 15-year-old girl, there are lessons in it that boys could benefit from.

    I really do hope that the author decides to continue this series because I'm not ready to let Harper and Killian go. I want to keep living in their world. I literally started and finished this book within the span of 24 hours. It was that good. I couldn't put it down. I only stopped to take my meds and grab a couple hours of sleep.